Maia Song Contest 16

The Maia Song Contest 16 was the sixteenth edition of the Maia Song Contest. It took place in Staesser, the capital of Braissash, after ONUKA’s victory in the last edition with the song Vidlik.

Location
RB and the MBU announced the conditions under which cities and venues could announce their interest in hosting the contest.


 * The host city had to be near a major airport.
 * The venue must be available for the rehearsal period before the contest and one week after the conclusion of the contest
 * The venue must not be open-air, but an air-conditioned building with a capacity of at least 10,000 and a minimum ceiling height of 15 metres (49 ft), insulated for sound and light.
 * The green room must be located as close to the arena as possible (or within it), with a capacity of 300.

Host venue

Semi-final allocations
Countries were allocated to semi-finals using pots based off of the voting patterns of the votes from the eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth edition.

Despite not being counted as being in any pot, the automatically qualified nations are still assigned a pot based off of their voting history.


 * and would be in Pot A.
 * would be in Pot B.
 * and would be in Pot C.
 * would be in Pot D.

Semi Final 1
Playlist available here. Recap available here.

Scoreboard available here.

, and  voted in this semi-final.

Semi Final 2
Playlist available here. Recap available here.

Scoreboard available here.

, and  voted in this semi-final.

Grand Final
Playlist availabe here. Recap available here.

A full scoreboard can be found here.

RAY and Charlotte OC
A few days after the selection of RAY to represent Qualton, a tweet from 2017 was found on her Twitter that contained a video she had filmed at a Charlotte OC concert with the caption "What a total babe". Qualtonese officials found this tweet and began to threaten to forcibly withdraw the singer from the contest, due to the harsh laws against the Loafousian singer. Several fans protested against this, and the Loafousian government sent out an official statement condemning the government of Qualton, stating that "no one should have the government dictate what they can and can't like." Currently the Qualtonese broadcaster is in talks with the government to find out what they will do.

Other countries
Eligibility for potential participation in the Maia Song Contest requires a national broadcaster with active MBU membership that would be able to broadcast the contest. The MBU will issue an invitation of participation in the contest to all active members.